259 



named had the Dane Carl Petersen on board as interpreter. 

 From Cape York Austin's expedition took a young Polar Eskimo 

 to England, where he was baptised and became known under 

 the name of Erasmus York; he died however in the year 1856 

 at Newfoundland, where he was being educated to be a mission- 

 ary among the Labrador Eskimos. 



Regarding the Polar Eskimos at Cape York Lieutenant 

 Sherard Osborn \ who was in charge of one of Austin's ships, 

 narrates that they arrived in dog-sledges, which "were entirely 

 constructed of bone, and were small, neat looking vehicles; no 

 sledge had more than five dogs; some had only three ... They 

 are said, ... to have believed themselves to be the only people 

 in the world". Carl Petersen^ says, with regard to one of 

 these sledges , that it was bound together by thongs of all 

 kinds. The runners consisted of old whale-bone , and there 

 was but little wood in it. 



In the years immediately following, the English expeditions 

 again came into connection with the Polar Eskimos. The only 

 one of importance in this regard is the expedition under 

 E. A. Inglefield, which discovered Inglefield Gulf and for the 

 first time sailed through Smith Sound. On August 22"^* 1852 

 Inglefield-^ met Eskimos in the neighbourhood of the Petowik 

 Glacier, where they were bird-hunting among the cliffs by the 

 coast; "Nothing of European ware was found with these natives, 

 nor were kyacks seen". Thereafter he visited the Eskimo settle- 

 ment Umanark, which was uninhabited at the time, as also a 

 likewise uninhabited winter-settlement (probably Netschilivik) 

 on Barden Bay, in the neighbourhood of which, however, Eski- 

 mos were dwelling in tents; at this settlement several examples 

 of European steel implements were; found. 



' Sh. Osborn : stray leaves from an arctic Journal. London 1852, p. 250. 

 - Carl Petersen: Erindringer Ira Polarlandene. København 1857, p. 29. 

 •' E. A. Inglefield: A summer search for Franklin. London 1853, p. 46 

 et seq. 



